Family Approach
Basic Olicognograph: Teens Accounted Together
The 3 core-concepts of the Family Support Approach are: 1) Consider people in context; 2) Build on family interactions; 3) Focus on strengths of individuals, families and community.
The following are guiding principles for practicing concepts espoused in the Family Support Approach for Community Supervision: 1) Avoid focusing solely on the problems that individuals, families, and communities present and look for and focus on the strengths of individuals, families, and communities; 2) Work with individuals under supervision to identify family and social networks of support; 3) Engage families and social networks in making and supporting the case plan of the individual under supervision; 4) Be aware of confidentiality and privacy issues when working with families and social networks of individuals under supervision.
Short-Term Objectives Community and Family Approach: 1) Public safety; 2) Accountability to victims and the community; 3) Adopt family intervention tools that enable supervision officers to identify and implement effective intervention strategies; 4) Identify community networks that currently work with families; 5) Utilize referral services that currently work with families, specifically targeting faith-based community; 6) Provide services proven to reduce risk and recidivism; 7) Increase positive stories involving family support being a contributing factor for successful reentry center.
Long-Term Goals Community and Family Approach: 1) Yearly reduction in the absconder rate; 2) Reduction in technical violations and incarceration as punishment for relapse ; 3) Increase in positive stories involving family support as the contributing factor in successful completion rate of community supervision; 4) Maintain or increase rate of graduation from treatment programs; 5) Develop quality assurance mechanisms to assure valid and useful data collection; 6) Linkage with a faith-based/spiritual/social support partner and establish a family focused reentry.
Some issues to consider during the assessment stage include: 1) Use supportive inquiry techniques when interviewing individuals under supervision to begin identifying their families and social networks of support (includes blood relatives, friends, and significant individuals who share a long-standing mutual sense of commitment and responsibility); 2) Use supportive inquiry techniques to help individuals identify the strengths that may help them meet their supervision goals. 3) Examine gathered information to better understand the context in which the individual under supervision lives and how his or her interactions with his family and social networks may affect his or her behavior (positively or negatively). Also be aware of who the individual has identified as having been harmed in some way (directly or indirectly) by the individual’s behavior and how they have been harmed. 4) Assess the influence of identified family members and social networks of support by using supportive inquiry techniques to learn more about the role of the family members and social networks in the individual’s life. This can help them uncover strengths and understand how to tap into that support to enhance supervision outcomes and facilitate behavioral changes. 5) Use genograms and ecomaps to organize information visually to help individuals under supervision see natural connections, as well as patterns of behavior, more clearly.
Case planning stage includes: 1) Review and use information obtained through initial interviews and the assessment phase to develop an individualized case plan (formal or informal) that outlines goals and objectives for the supervision process. 2) Use supportive inquiry techniques to involve individuals and their families in developing the case plan and prioritizing objectives. 3) Leverage support from families and social networks of support. Look for and capitalize on natural connections individuals have with other people and institutions and determine how those connections can be supported and act as a support for the individual throughout their supervision process. Often, genograms and ecomaps can help you and the individual under supervision organize and see natural connections more clearly. Build these into the case plan. 4) Look for relationships that can provide long-term support and identify ways those relationships can be strengthened. 5) Use supportive inquiry techniques (and/or mapping tools) to identify and capitalize on identified strengths of individuals under supervision, families, and communities. Wherever possible, incorporate this type of information by including strategies in the case plan that build on identified strengths, and by updating the supervision plan, as needed, throughout the period of supervision. 6) Recognize that individuals often will identify negative influences within their families and social networks. Use supportive inquiry techniques to challenge those negative relationships and help the individual identify and tap into more positive ones. 7) Recognize that families can often be an individual’s first victim or at the reverse. When possible and when it will facilitate a more supportive relationship for the individual, direct the family to resources that can help them repair their relationship and the harm that was caused. 8) Understand that some individuals under supervision will not want to involve their families. Use supportive inquiry techniques to help determine the reasoning behind their reluctance and resistance and then, if appropriate, help them reframe their reasons for not wanting their family to be involved (e.g., trying to protect their family).
Abused or neglected children and adolescents are among the highest at risk for becoming substance abusers; they also develop these problems at a younger age than others do due to familial and genetic factors. Protective Goals could be: 1) to protect and ensure the safety of children; 2) to prevent and remediate the consequences of substance abuse on families involved in protective supervision, or at risk of being involved in protective supervision, by reducing alcohol and drug use; 3) to plan for permanency and reunify healthy, intact families; 4) to support families in recovery. Mark under the heading that best describes your child: (NEVER - SOMETIMES - OFTEN); 1) Complains of aches and pains; 2) Spends more time alone; 3) Tires easily, has little energy; 4) Fidgety, unable to sit still; 5) Has trouble with teacher; 6) Less interested in school; 7) Acts as if driven by a motor; 8) Daydreams too much; 9) Distracted easily.
The use of substances is a major concern with adolescents with psychotic disorders. Psychosis in adolescents has 3 models of substance use: the normative development model (suggests mild levels of substance can be developmentally appropriate and although not necessary for good adjustment can facilitate developmental tasks such as establishing a separate identity from parents, assuming adult roles, and developing and maintaining peer relations), the deviance-prone model (suggests that the misuse and abuse of substances is simply one aspect of general deviant behavior), and the affect regulation model (proposes that individuals use substances to cope with their negative affect. Evidence for this model has been demonstrated in adolescents in the general population).
